“Pope Francis has emphasized how important it is for Catholics to be engaged in the political process,” Anderson said Aug 2. “His words regarding the importance of Catholics being faithful citizens are especially important for us.”

Anderson’s remarks to the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus meeting in Toronto reiterated his comments to the 2008 Supreme Convention in Quebec.

“We need to end the political manipulation of Catholic voters by abortion advocates,” he said. “It is time to end the entanglement of Catholic people with abortion killing. It is time to stop creating excuses for voting for pro-abortion politicians.”

“Abortion is the killing of the innocent on a massive scale,” he added.

Anderson said politics does not mean partisanship, but a stand for the common good and for moral and religious values that make free, democratic institutions possible.

Foremost among these values, he said, is “the equal dignity of every human life and the right of every person to freely practice their religion.”

“We will never succeed in building a culture of life if we continue to vote for politicians who support a culture of death.”

He reflected on the political question of whether one should support a candidate attractive for many reasons but who supports abortion.

“Some partisan advocates have sought to excuse support for pro-abortion candidates through a complex balancing act. They claim other issues are important enough to offset a candidate’s support for abortion,” he said.

“But the right to abortion is not just another political issue,” Anderson said. “It is in reality a legal regime that has resulted in more than 40 million deaths.”

He noted that 40 million is a figure greater than the entire population of Canada.

“What political issue could possibly outweigh this human devastation?” he asked. “The answer, of course, is that there is none.”

His 2008 remarks urged faithful Catholics to build a new politics not according to the status quo, but according to their dedication to “building up a new culture of life.”

In his latest remarks Anderson said he would add that Catholics need to “think in new ways” to build “a civilization of love.”

His speech discussed legalized euthanasia, threats to religious freedom, the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians and the 2015 racial murders at a black church in South Carolina and new racial violence in the U.S. this year.

Anderson added that about 8 in 10 Americans would significantly restrict abortion, while almost 6 in 10 Canadians would support substantial restrictions.

A significant majority of Americans consider abortion morally wrong and do not want taxpayer funding of abortion, he said.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 11, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Two of the nation’s top Catholic leaders wrote to every member of the U.S. Congress, urging them to enact the Conscience Protection Act.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, chairman of USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, appealed to Congress in their official capacity to pass legislation protecting Christian healthcare providers and other moral health coverage entities from “being forced by government to help destroy innocent unborn children.”

“While existing federal laws already protect conscientious objection to abortion in theory, this protection has not proved effective in practice,” Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Lori wrote. “Since then, three new developments make the need for immediate action to pass the Conscience Protection Act even more urgent.”

Dolan and Lori noted that last month “the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared, contrary to the plain meaning of current federal law, that California’s Department of Managed Health Care can continue forcing all health plans under its jurisdiction to cover elective abortions, including late-term abortions.”

The second “serious new reason” the bishops list, is “the state of New York’s Department of Financial Services … forcing healthcare entities to cover abortions in health plans … including faith-based nonprofits and Christian businesses … with no exemption whatsoever.”

“The current administration, led by the Department of Health and Human Services, has been engaging in a frontal assault on religious freedom and conscience protections, particularly with regard to abortion.”

The bishops added, “What’s more, a 2013 opinion by Washington’s Attorney General applies this policy even if the public hospital is acquired by a Catholic healthcare provider.”

Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Lori concluded, “These disturbing new actions to force healthcare providers to participate in the destruction of human life cry out for an immediate federal remedy.”

“Even those who disagree on the issue of abortion should be able to respect those who wish not to participate in abortion. We strongly urge you to uphold the rights to life and liberty which our Founding Fathers wisely asserted as most fundamental to our nation’s existence.”

Rick Hinshaw of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil rights told LiteSiteNews, “The Conscience Protection Act should not even be necessary; and wouldn’t be, if laws already passed — not to mention the religious liberty enshrined in our Constitution — were being respected. But the current administration, led by the Department of Health and Human Services, has been engaging in a frontal assault on religious freedom and conscience protections, particularly with regard to abortion.”

Hinshaw charged that the Obama Administration is “threatening to undermine the moral and ethical principles that are the very essence of Catholic healthcare, and that make Catholic healthcare institutions such vital and sought-after resources for millions of Americans.”

Hinshaw noted that the Administration’s decree against California Catholic schools is “in flagrant disregard of the 2005 Weldon Amendment, which specifically prohibits states from forcing any healthcare entity to provide abortions.”

“In the face of such blatant attacks on religious freedom, it is essential that Congress pass the Conscience Protection Act,” Hinshaw concluded.

Dr. Lester Ruppersberger, president of the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), agrees. “The Catholic Medical Association fully supports the passage of the Conscience Protection Act,” he told LifeSiteNews in an email. “The CMA supports the Constitution of the United States, which supports the God-given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — the latter of which guarantees the right to live and act according to one’s conscience.”

Dr. Ruppersberger also noted the Weldon Amendment “guaranteed this freedom,” and the Conscience Protection Act “will continue and enhance those protections.”

The Conscience Protection Act (H.R. 4828), introduced in March, is designed to make permanent the Hyde/Weldon Conscience Amendment protections against employers forcing employees to participate in abortions, approved by Congress and retained as a clause in appropriations bills annually since 2004.

H.R. 4828 would also eliminate loopholes in the Hyde/Weldon Conscience Amendment, because it does not allow victims whose employers forced them to participate in abortions under threat of losing their job to go to court. It also leaves employee protection entirely in the hands of the Department of Health and Human Services — “which in some cases has been the perpetrator of the discrimination, and in other cases has given this issue a low priority,” the bishops note.

Furthermore, pro-lifers say the Conscience Protection Act is desperately needed because the Hyde/Weldon clause does not apply to a subunit of state government not receiving federal funds.

In a most recent development, the President-elect of the Catholic Medical Association, Dr. Marie Alberte Boursiquot, testified before the Energy and Commerce Commission last Friday, encouraging the passage of the Conscience Protection Act.

“This Act will strengthen other existing laws to allow healthcare providers to practice medicine according to their consciences while still providing excellent healthcare to their patients,” CMA told LifeSiteNews.

There is Only One Word for What is Happening: Genocide

A major report submitted to Secretary of State John Kerry making the case that genocide is being waged against Christians in the Middle East was released today by the Knights of Columbus and In Defense of Christians at a news conference at the National Press Club.

The 280-page report includes substantial material not previously available, including the most comprehensive information to date, not just on churches that have been destroyed, but also on Christians who have been killed, kidnapped, raped, sold into slavery, driven from their homes, and dispossessed. It also details interviews with witnesses to the atrocities that were collected during a Knights of Columbus fact-finding mission to Iraq last month.

Senior State Department officials had requested that the K of C produce such a report four weeks ago, as they neared a congressionally-mandated March 17 deadline for making a determination as to whether or not ISIS was committing genocide against Christians and other minority groups. The report is available online at www.kofc.org and www.StopTheChristianGenocide.org. The latter site also hosts a petition calling on Secretary of State John Kerry not to exclude Christians from a declaration of genocide at the hands of ISIS. The petition has been signed by more than 60,000 people.

The report includes an executive summary, a legal brief outlining the case for a genocide declaration, and addenda including summaries of witness interviews, a database of crimes known to have been committed against Christians by ISIS and its affiliated groups, lists of Christians killed, estimates of the number of dead in various regions under ISIS control, statements by other governments and world leaders, and additional evidence of ISIS’ intent and actions against Christians that has been widely overlooked in the Western media.

“There is only one word that adequately, and legally, describes what is happening to Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. That word is ‘genocide’,” said Supreme Carl Anderson in presenting the report.

He pointed out that the UN Convention on genocide and U.S. statutes that mirror it state that genocide occurs even when the destruction of the group is not complete but only in part. He also noted that non-legal terms such as “ethnic” or “religious” cleansing or even legal terms such as “crimes against humanity” lack the elements necessary to address the situation.

He continued: “In her 2002 book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power wrote that ‘the United States had never in its history intervened to stop genocide, and in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred.’” She documents a long history of American inaction in places like Bosnia, Rwanda, and Cambodia.

Anderson commended “the courageous action of [then] Secretary of State Colin Powell who became the first member of any United States administration to apply the label ‘genocide’ to an ongoing conflict when he reported to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that ‘genocide has been committed in Darfur … and that genocide may still be occurring.’”

Anderson noted that “Secretary of State Kerry has a similar opportunity to exercise moral leadership.”

Calling the persecution of Christians – and other religious minorities – in the Middle East “genocide” has global consensus: support comes from a strong majority of the American people, as evidenced by a K of C-Marist poll, and bipartisan support from candidates of both parties, including former Secretary of State Clinton who applied the label to what is happening to Christians.

The report also cites both U.S. and international law which are clear on the matter and support the case that the persecution of Christians in the Middle East meets the legal definition of genocide at every level.

Anderson also noted that over 200 members of Congress from both parties are co-sponsoring H. Con. Res. 75. He added that “today we renew our support for this excellent piece of legislation and applaud its progress.”

“The evidence contained in this report as well as the evidence relied upon by the European Parliament fully support—I would suggest compel—the conclusion that reasonable grounds exist to believe the crime of genocide has been committed,” Anderson said.

“While we believe this to be the most comprehensive report on this subject to date, covering incidents in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Yemen, we continue to receive new reports and new evidence,” said Anderson. But with new reports pouring in every day, he cautioned: “It may only be the tip of the iceberg.”

Anderson noted that Secretary of State John Kerry himself in August 2014 stated: “ISIL’s campaign of terror against the innocent, including Yezidi (sic) and Christian minorities, and its grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the warning signs and hallmarks of genocide.”

Anderson said, the collective evidence, and ISIS’ own public statements and publications make clear that it targets Christians in order to destroy them as a group and Christianity as a religion.

ISIS’ magazine, Dabiq, has promised to destroy the “Crusader army,” a Christian reference, and has labeled Pope Francis “the crusader pope.” ISIS’ videos have encouraged the killing of priests – and Christians in general – as well.

Among the chilling statements in the magazine is this one: “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women… If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it, and they will sell your sons as slaves at the slave market.”

A panel of speakers with expertise in this area also spoke in favor a genocide designation, including Coptic Bishop Anba Angaelos; Chaldean Catholic priests Father Douglas Bazi and Father Dankha Joola, both from Iraq; religious freedom scholar Nina Shea; Catholic University of America law professor Robert Destro; Prof. Greg Stanton, founding president of Genocide Watch; Defying ISIS author Johnnie Moore, and Juliana Taimoorazy.